The TrueLife Mandate - Lead

Open your Bibles to Matthew 16 and meet me at verse 18. Matthew 16,

Matthew 16:18

verse 18. I want to read the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He says, now I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build

my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about the true life mandate. why true life exists.

And we found out that this is the first time we see the word church in the New Testament.

Jesus mentions the word church for the very first time. And he says here that I will build my church.

That means Jesus is going to construct, he's going to establish,

he's going to build his church.

Now church doesn't mean organized religion or just some fanatics that kind of

come together on Sundays.

Now the church in the Greek is the word ekklesia which means called out ones

or divinely selected ones.

People that have been called out and selected to gather together to make decisions in the community.

This group of people is founded upon Jesus being the Christ,

the son of the living God.

And the foundation from there will be people going out and coming together and

really calling themselves the church in the earth.

They are a, you and I have been selected and chosen to be a part of the church in this earth.

Not organized religion, not religiosity, but the called out chosen ones.

I mean, it should be that when you tell someone I'm a part of the church,

they should be like, Ooh, wow, you're part of the church. I mean,

that's how much honor you should feel about being a part of the ecclesia, the church.

You've been called out from the world to gather together with other like-minded

believers with an assignment.

And over the last several weeks, we've been talking about the assignment that

God has placed on True Life Fellowship Church.

We started July of 2011 in a smelly, stinky band room of a middle school.

We had no equipment. We had no microphones.

I mean, literally, I was talking without a mic. We had no musicians like you

saw today, no beautiful singing like you heard today.

We didn't have any of the sound text and the screens, nothing.

We just got started from a word from God. Get started.

And the Lord spoke to Stacey and I over a weekend. He said to us,

I want you to start true life because I believe that there is more to life than

what people are experiencing.

And he told us, teach my people to experience true life. And that became our slogan.

There's more to life than what you are experiencing. And we are called to teach

people how to experience life and life more abundantly.

Then he gave me four words. He said, love, we talked about that several weeks

ago, is the foundation of true life.

Once you believe and receive the love of God, then you'll begin to,

number two, learn some things.

So the foundation is love. God loves me.

That is the foundation to experience life and life more abundantly.

And from that foundation, we got to learn some things. We're going to grow as

you begin to learn to know God better and better.

So we're going to have to become disciples. We're going to have to show up and

gather so that we can learn something because how many know that knowledge really is power.

Revelation and insight gives you the advantage. So you're going to have to learn some things.

And the older you get, sometimes the harder it is to learn.

And that's why you got to force yourself to, I've got to learn. I've got to grow.

I've got to come and develop and read and study and hear these messages because

I've got to grow to learn to know God better and better.

And last week, we talked about then you got to live.

You got to live by faith. The just shall live by faith. What does that mean?

We got to live what we have learned.

If we're going to experience true life, we're going to have to live,

actually apply it to our life, what we have learned from the foundation that God loves us.

And then the last word the Lord gave, Stacey and I, was the word lead,

and we'll talk about that today.

He said to us, and then you'll be able to lead people to Jesus.

Now, this word lead means influence. Somebody say influence.

Now, sometimes we look around and we say that person's a natural born leader

or this person's a leader.

And how many know that all leaders are naturally born, by the way? OK.

And so that's a natural born. Well, yeah, he had to be born.

Everybody that's born came naturally. OK.

And so, yes, some people just leadership comes very easy for them.

Others don't feel like they are leaders. But the truth of the matter is each

and every one of us is a leader. because each and every one of us has influence.

You have the ability to influence someone else.

You have the capacity to sway someone else's thoughts, views,

morals, opinions, and behavior.

And this is what leadership is all about. Leadership at the core is influence.

Now, there are several ways to become a trusted leader and I may talk about

that at a later time, but in and of itself, a leader is influential.

A leader will sway and influence your thoughts, opinions, paradigms,

and sometimes even behavior because that's the power of leadership.

And the Lord told me and Stacey when we started the church that the last step

is we're going to have to teach people how to lead people to Jesus.

And that leadership, that influence starts with how you are living your life.

How are you living that can be attractive to someone that needs to be influenced by Jesus?

It's so very important. But in Scripture, the Apostle Paul also gives us a message

and a ministry where influencing people for Jesus is concerned.

And I want you to hear this very clearly today, because this is our assignment.

This really is our assignment in the earth. And it's found in,

put that on the screen, is it 2 Corinthians chapter 5?

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Yes, verse 14. Watch this.

It says, either way, Christ's love controls us.

That word control means constrains us or compels us or holds us griply.

His love griply holds us tightly. Since we believe that Christ died for all,

how many believe Christ died for all?

We also believe that we have all died to our old life. Look at the next verse.

He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.

Notice if you receive the new life in Christ Jesus, you cannot live for yourself.

If you want to live for yourself, don't give your life to Jesus.

Just live for the devil, and then at the end of your life, you just go to hell, okay?

But if you want to live for Jesus, you can't live for yourself.

Instead, they will live for Christ. You exist and move and breathe to live for

Christ who died and was raised for them. Watch this in verse 16.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.

At one time, we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view,

how differently we know him now.

Verse 17, this means that anyone

who belongs to Christ has become a new person. Say, I'm a new person.

The old life is gone. A new life, a life that's never existed before,

has begun. Verse 18, and all of this is a gift from God. You didn't earn it.

You don't deserve it. It was freely given to you by God who brought us back

to himself through Christ.

And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. Look at verse 19.

For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's

sins against them, and he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

Verse 20, so we are Christ's ambassadors.

God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God.

And then verse 21, for God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for

our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Let me break this down for you. And so we find out here that you and I should

not be living for ourselves. If we gave our life to Jesus, we should be living for Christ.

And if we're going to live for Christ, then we find out he is giving us a ministry

that's called reconciliation.

Somebody say reconciliation.

Now, reconciliation simply means to bring together.

To bring together. And so something was broken.

Maybe there was some division. Maybe there was some separation.

A reconciler will bring the two parties together.

Footnote, restoration is to bring back together.

But reconciliation is to bring together. So there's been some enmity.

There's been subdivision.

There's been a separation and a reconciler will bring two parties together.

And so we find in this passage of scripture that because of sin,

sin has been the separator between God and his creation, humanity.

A sinner has been separated from God.

And so what God did, because of sin, and then we were all born into sin as sinners,

God came inside of Christ Jesus and began to reconcile the world,

the sinner, unto himself.

And he did that through Christ Jesus.

Now footnote here, I want you to hear this.

There is a difference between sinning and being a sinner.

All right. A sinner is someone that is identifying or positioned as such.

They have either rejected Christ or they have never heard of Christ,

or they don't want Christ.

And so they are identified or positioned as a sinner, right?

God came in Christ to reach sinners.

God loves sinners. But he's given

you and I the ministry or the message of reconciliation to the sinner.

Now, in verse 21, I'm going to skip around here but follow along.

It says, for God was in Christ Jesus.

So that's no, verse 21, here it is. For God made Christ who never sinned to

be the offering for our sins so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Christ came in the earth, never sinned. Then a great exchange took place.

He was made sin on the cross because you and I were sinners.

So he was made sin on the cross. He took all of our sin with him on the cross.

And then he exchanged his righteousness for our sin.

So if you believe and receive the finished works of Jesus, you are not a sinner. You are righteous.

You are in right standing with God. God views you as in right standing with me.

No enmity, no separation, no division. you

stand innocent justified just

as if you've never sinned before God

himself you've been made righteous because of what Jesus has done for you he

was perfect he was right but then he took all of our sin past present and you

better believe future sin and then he took that and exchanged it for righteousness.

Now you and I are righteous before God.

We are not sinners.

If you've accepted Jesus, you are not a sinner. You may sin, but you're not a sinner.

And if you sin, 1 John 2, verse 1 says it this way.

1 John 2:1

If you sin, it's coming on the screen. Here we come.

My dear children, I'm writing this to you so that you will not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.

He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. Look at verse two.

He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins, and not only for our sins,

but the sins of the whole world.

So if we were to sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus,

and we can just go to him and say, I am the righteousness of God.

I missed the mark. I made a mistake. I sinned.

God will forgive us because we're in right standing with him,

and we go on continuing in our right standing with God.

See, the only thing sin does is it hurts your confidence.

It doesn't make you unrighteous.

It just hurts your confidence in Christ. And sin will come to really distract

you and hurt your confidence in him.

But you're still righteous even if you sin. Now listen to this.

You are free from the power of sin.

You are free from the penalty of sin. Thank God we're free from the power and the penalty of sin.

But you and I are not free from the presence of sin.

It's all around us. And we're not free from the practice of sin.

You can practice sin. We're not free from that, but we are free from the penalty and the power of sin.

And so what God has said is, I'm going to take old sinners, and through Christ

Jesus, I'm going to make them righteous, and then I'm going to give them an

assignment, and their assignment is a ministry of reconciliation.

And so put back on the screen, guys, 2 Corinthians 5, maybe verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5, no, go 18, go to 18.

2 Corinthians 5, 18, watch this. He said, all of this is a gift from God who

brought us back to himself through Christ and has given us the task,

the ministry, the assignment of reconciling people to him. Look at the next verse.

For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Look what he was doing.

No longer counting people's sins against them.

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

What am I saying? What is the Apostle Paul saying? He's saying that our message

to the sinner is that God is no longer counting your sins against you.

I don't know if you got that or not, but our message to the sinner,

it's not you're going to hell. That's not our message to the sinner.

Our message to the sinner is not you wicked, busted, broke, you know,

I cannot believe you did that, voted that way, acted that way.

That's not our message to the sinner.

Our message to the sinner is God is no longer counting your sins against you.

That's the message to the sinner. That's the task.

The ministry that you and I have is that God's no longer counting your sins against you.

The first time I put this into practice, I've told this story before,

but it resonates because it meant a lot to me. I used to play a lot of basketball.

I was very active until one day I hurt my ankle.

And it took like a year before my ankle healed. and I just stopped playing.

But I used to play a lot of basketball, pick up games all the time,

all over town. I would just find somewhere to play.

I used to play at one particular gym.

And Tanelle, you know these friends. I used to play with Ronnie at a gym.

We used to meet at 6 a.m., Monday through Friday, 6 a.m., and we would play

basketball. And I would play, get dressed, and then go to work. Had to be at work at 8.

But we would play. I mean, I loved to play. And one particular time,

I was playing basketball and I was hearing these two guys whisper to each other.

And they were like, shh, shh.

And so I turned to one of them. I said, what are y'all whispering about?

And one of them turned to me and said, Devon, I smoke, I drink, I sin.

I mean, he said it that harsh. I thought we were about to fight.

I didn't know why he said that so harsh.

I kind of like, well, what's up, man? You know, why are you saying like that?

You know, he's, I just want you to know, okay, I smoke, I drink, I sin.

And in that moment, I'm like, Lord, what am I supposed to respond?

First, I thought we're going to fight, but now I thought, no,

I need to, I need to figure out what to respond.

And it felt like it was 30 minutes, but it was really less than a second.

Probably the Lord spoke to my heart and this came out of my mouth.

I said, what if no one is in hell for smoking and drinking and sinning?

He got real quiet. He said, what? I said, what if no one is in hell for smoking

and drinking and sinning?

He said, well, why would they go to hell then? I said, they go to hell because

they reject Jesus, the one that's saying, I'm not counting your sins against you.

If you'll just embrace me and confess my word and believe in your heart that

God raised me from the dead, you'll be saved.

You're free. You'll be free from all of that.

They've rejected Jesus.

It's not the smoking, drinking, and sinning. It's the rejection of the finished

works of Jesus that has been laid out.

God is not counting your sins against you. If you'll embrace Jesus,

you'll be free from damnation.

You'll be free to live this life.

Listen, don't try to clean yourself up. You can't clean a fish until you catch them.

I'm preaching better than y'all say amen this afternoon. But you got to be able

to catch him first and then let the Holy Spirit clean him up.

But we're trying to get people clean first before they come into the house of the Lord.

But no, no, come on in here drinking and smoking and smelling like weed.

Come on up in here. I'm going to let you know God's not counting your sins against you.

Then I'm going to introduce Jesus to you. Then you're going to get saved.

And the next week you come back, you're going to be free from that weed and pot and meth and smoke.

But what we've done is we've said, oh, you got to clean up before you get in here.

And you go into hell, you old dirty rascal. And they know they sinners.

They know they wrong. We got to tell them God is not counting sins against you.

Guess what? Yeah, I know you're doing all that fornicating and adultery.

God is not counting that again. What are you talking about?

Jesus died for all of this. And if you'll just believe and receive him,

you won't even have the urge to do all that sinning that you're doing right now.

That's our message.

God is not counting your sins against you.

That brother on the basketball court, when I said to him, I said,

what if smoking, drinking, and sinning ain't put nobody in hell?

You know, nobody's in hell down there because they were smoking.

Nobody's in hell because they was drinking. Now, you can leave this earth a

lot sooner with all that smoking and drinking, but we need to be here as long as we can. Amen?

Nobody's in hell because they're in hell because they rejected Jesus,

the Christ, the Son of the living God,

who had the ability to take away all of the penalty for their sins.

And our message is God's not counting it against you.

And so this, we played some games and this man came up to me after the games.

He said, I want to talk a little bit more about what you said over there. I said, what did I say?

He said, you said nobody's in hell for smoking, drinking, and sinning.

I said, no, nobody's in hell for smoking, drinking, and sinning.

He said, well, talk to me more about how I can not go to hell.

I said, all you need to do is just believe in Jesus.

I said, listen, I said, do you believe that Jesus has the ability to take away

the penalty of sin? He said, I do.

I said, do you believe that he died on the cross and he loves you? I do.

Are you missing something on the inside of you that's broken?

I am. I said, Jesus is that void. I said, just right here.

Just come on. Just say this after me. Jesus is Lord. He said,

Jesus is Lord. I said, he said, I felt something. I said, yeah, say it again.

Jesus is Lord. He said, Jesus is Lord.

I said, I felt something. I see the scripture says in Romans chapter 10,

Romans 10:9

verses 9 and 10, it says that if you confess with your mouth,

the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart, God raised him from the dead,

thou shalt be saved. In verse 10, I like the new living.

It says it this way, for it is by believing in your heart that you are made

right with God. It is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

I said, right now you're saved, man. He said, I feel like a spiritual,

this is what he said, I feel like a spiritual infant.

I said, well, you are. You are a spiritual infant, but hang with me and we're

going to grow up and you're going to be strong. And you know what?

He started calling me and staying in touch with me and I began to encourage

him and begin to walk with him.

Why? Because I let him know God's not counting your sins against you.

That's the message of reconciliation.

God's trying to bring sinners. He's trying to bring them into the house of the

Lord. He wants them to be in the kingdom of God.

And he has sent you and I out here as ambassadors.

We're ambassadors. That means we're trusted messengers.

We're not from here. An ambassador is not from the land where they live.

The ambassador lives somewhere else. Did you know that we're from above?

We're not even from here. we're a part of another kingdom.

We're here on assignment. We're here with a task. We're here with a message.

We're not even from all the cares and the worries that are happening in this

world shouldn't even be bothering us because we're not even from here. We're an ambassador.

So that means I am here to represent the kingdom.

You should be able to look at my life and say, that's what the king looks like.

That's how the king acts. This is how the king responds.

See, when you see me, I'm an ambassador. I'm just conformed to the image of Jesus.

So I should be in this earth leading, influencing, guiding, instructing people

with my life, with my actions, with my words.

And you may be the only book, you may be the only Bible that any person ever reads.

Think about that. So you want to sit at your desk and have your Bible there and thump the Bible.

When somebody walked by, you want to thump the Bible. That ain't getting nobody saved.

It's your life. They're looking at your results, the fruit in your life.

Are you bearing fruit?

And then are you condemning them, chastising them, or are you just letting them know God loves you?

And guess what? He's not counting those sins against you.

But you don't know what I'm doing. I'm out here committing adultery.

I know what you're doing. You think you're being secret. I know what you're doing.

The whole office knows what you're doing. But guess what?

God's not counting that sin against you. What are you talking about?

Why don't you give your life to Jesus? That whole desire will be gone in an instant.

You don't even want to do that no more. Come next Sunday and get baptized.

And that dead life will be gone.

Buried in that water. Gone. You'll raise up in the newness of life.

This is the message of reconciliation.

God is not keeping score. Right?

That's right. There's proper responses. Thank you, Lord. God is not keeping a record of your sin.

I used to think when I was a younger kid that God had a video camera and he

was looking at all the sins that I've ever done. And he was keeping a record.

And when I get to heaven one day, he was going to play it.

And then we all going to stand there and we all going to watch all of the bad stuff Devon did.

And I thought, man, how embarrassing that would be. That's not what God does.

Matter of fact, it says that we should have boldness in the day of judgment.

We should be excited about the return of the Lord because he's not keeping the record of our sin.

We're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and it is our assignment.

It is our task and duty to reconcile sinners back to God.

That's our task is to snatch sinners out of the world and put them in the kingdom

of God, and we do it by letting them know God's not counting your sins against you.

I know you're acting crazy, but God loves you. He has forgiven you already.

All you need to do is embrace him and accept it. It'll change you from the inside

out, and then you'll be coming to church just like me, and you'll be glad about

it and happy about it because Jesus did a work in your life.

Come on, somebody say amen.

Now look at 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1 and 2. Watch this. Verse 1 and 2,

2 Corinthians 6:1

I like where it says here.

So as God's partners, do you know you and I are partners?

We're ambassadors and we're partners. We beg you not to accept this marvelous

gift of kindness and then ignore it.

Don't get saved and then ignore it and forget about other people.

Verse 2, for God says at just the right time I heard you.

On the day of salvation I helped you.

He's talking to his partners. I helped you. I heard you. Indeed, the right time is now.

And then tell the sinners, today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day. You walk up to somebody and say, God's not counting your sins

against you. Today is your day for salvation.

I'm telling you what I know, they're more prone to pray with you right then and there.

And you ain't got to go through no long repeat after me, my father,

I have sinned and I have fallen short of the glory and have the 20-minute prayer.

All you need to simply say is, do you believe in Jesus?

Did he die for your sins? Do you believe he loves you?

Well, you believe he was raised. Well, you are saved. Say Jesus is Lord.

Jesus, you're saved right now in Jesus' name.

That's all you got to do. And many of us have been too timid because we don't

really know what to say or do.

And I get it we don't really know what to say or do we just let them know it's

not your sins that's going to send you to hell it's not your sins that's going

to cause you to uh reap some good uh uh some bad fruit you're already reaping

bad fruit what what's what you need is a new root.

Today's your day to give your life to Jesus.

And all you got to do is sow the seed. This is leadership.

Through the way you live, you'll be influencing others, swaying them.

They're going to want what you want.

I have it happen to me pretty often when someone would ask me, what is it?

When I was working at a Fortune 500 bank, I got promoted three times in two years.

Making $28,000, and then when I left, making over $120,000. That's when $100,000

was real money, all right?

Real money back then, all right? And so it's good money today,

too, but it was real money back then.

And so I make a neighbor and say, how is that happening for you?

How will you keep getting promoted? What's going on?

Jesus? No, you know somebody. Who is it? No, no, it's Jesus.

He loves me, and he loves you too. No, he don't love me. He loves you.

He's not counting your sins against you. He's patient and kind with you.

They know it to be true innately, instinctively.

They know it on the inside.

But we have been too pushy. We've been too condemning.

We've been banging their head

with a hammer. Or we haven't lived the life we're supposed to be living.

And embarrassing Jesus with our life.

We're supposed to be ambassadors representing him, but some folks out here embarrassing him.

Say, no, no, no. You want what I got. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. I do.

Jesus is the way to get it. See, you think they're trying to avoid hell.

These sinners ain't thinking about hell.

When's the last time you talked about heaven to somebody or they talked to you about heaven?

When's the last time somebody talked to you about hell? It rarely comes up because

we're not thinking about heaven or hell.

Now, as believers, we should think more about heaven than we do.

But they're not thinking about hell. They think about paying their bills.

They think about taking care of their children. They're thinking about their marriage.

They're thinking about how do you have peace and I don't?

How come you're not disturbed by the changes happening at work and I'm over

here about to pull my hair out?

That's the opportunities to let them know. I'm not worried about what's happening

here because I have a peace that surpasses all understanding.

But if you're cussing, fussing, and busting with them, then they're going to

look at you like there ain't nothing to being a believer. I mean,

that person acts just like me. They bent out of shape like I'm bent out of shape.

They acting crazy just like, you know, I'm acting crazy. No,

no, no. You ought to be different.

I remember when I was working and they moved these desks and they had,

at the time, they had these viewbicles.

You know what they are? They're just cubicles with a V, really.

And these viewbicles, they would move us around. And people used to get mad.

Oh, why am I sitting way over here? And why am I?

I remember they put me somewhere and they're like, why are you not mad?

You had a nice desk. Now you're in this vehicle.

I said, they can put me in the parking garage for all I care.

As long as the phone work and I can make my client calls, I'm going to be all right.

How do you feel that way? I got a peace on the inside of me.

How do you got so much peace? Jesus.

Come on somebody. And guess what? He's not counting your sins against you either.

If you want this peace that I have, let me introduce you to Jesus.

All you got to do is plant the seed. The Lord didn't even ask you to save nobody.

He just asked you to let people know.

That God's not counting sins against you.

Here's how you give your life to Jesus. And it's the Holy Spirit's responsibility to seal the deal.

Say amen to that. Our responsibility, our ministry, our task,

our duty is to let them know.

God's not counting your sins against you. He loves you.

He cares for you. He has a peace that he can give you to help you in this storm.

Can I pray with you? It don't take a lot.

One word from God can change someone's life forever.

One encounter with you. There are people, I hear the Lord saying this,

there are people praying for their unsaved loved ones right now,

and you are the answer to their prayers.

They're praying please send them across somebody's path and the lord's saying

ron uh yeah you're going over there today it's you thought it was to get gas

but it's really to talk to them about jesus,

Amen. Now when I leave the house, I like to get places and get in and out.

And my wife will tell you I get stopped all the time. I get stopped all the time.

Now I thought this could be someone, somebody could be praying about this encounter

right here. Let me give it my full attention.

Do you know Jesus? Oh, you're a preacher. I knew you were a preacher.

Don't worry about if I'm a preacher or not. Do you know Jesus?

He's not counting none of that against you. Can I pray with you?

I have never had anybody tell me no when I say, can I pray with you?

I've never had anybody say no.

100% of the time, they say yes.

Yes. You know, let me pray with you. You know, God loves you. Jesus died for you.

Come on, give your life to Him. Just believe that something is going to be different.

Just say, today's my day for salvation.

I mean, all these are, it's not this cliche sort of rehearsed response we've

been taught to give folks. That ain't it.

It's just having them come to the conclusion that they're going to make a decision

right then and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

Then, amen, listen, stay in touch. Here's our church's website.

Why don't you come to church? Whatever the case may be. I like my pastor.

I think you'll like him too.

Whatever it might be. Hey, I want to stay in touch with you.

Let me take you out to lunch.

Whatever it might be, then you'll begin to allow that seed that you've planted,

be watered and nourished by the Holy Spirit himself.

You're just giving him something to work with. And so when the Lord spoke to

us, he said, when you start True Life Fellowship Church,

Teach people that I love them. They'll grow because it's time for them to learn.

And they'll grow and they'll learn. And then they'll live what they learn.

And as they begin to live what they've learned, they'll begin to lead,

sway, and influence people for Jesus.

This is what the Lord has called this ecclesia to be.

This is why I say very confidently, if you're a part of this church,

you are going to prosper.

You are going to advance. You're going to succeed. You're going to have revelation

like you've never had before. You're going to learn to walk by faith. You're going to be bold.

You're going to understand how much God loves you. You're going to prosper in

every area of your life because God's called us to experience true life together

so that then we can be a beacon of light. An example.

Amen. I was talking to someone the other day. It's just, and it's your influence is greater than you see.

Listen to me. You think you're meaningless and nobody's thinking about you and cares about you.

Sheila, your influence is greater than you even know.

People are watching. They'll never tell you, but they're watching you and they're

making decisions about their life regarding what you're doing in your life.

A man reached out to me yesterday. He heard our story about our new building

and how we stepped out in faith.

I mean, this is a big faith step for us.

We don't have all the money, you know, all our expenses are going to increase.

Everything's going up in this purchase, but I trust God.

I trust God to take care of everything. And he told me, he goes,

you stepping out into the new church. And this is a prosperous man.

He said, and he showed me a screenshot of his phone.

In his phone, it said, Devon stepped out and pursued a building,

and this should give me the courage

to step out and pursue things that I'm supposed to do. I'm like, what?

That encouraged you? He goes, man, it's in my reminders on my phone that if

Devon can step out, then I can step out and do some different things.

I would have never known that unless he told me.

You're influencing people right now. It's greater than what you see.

People are watching you.

They're looking at you, and you never know. They could be sitting in someone

else's church right now, giving their life to Jesus because they watched you, and you never knew.

You are an ambassador. Say that. I am an ambassador.

That means you are a trusted messenger. You are a trusted messenger.

God trusts you with the message and say, look like me in the earth.

Act like me. Be like me in the earth.

People will follow you because you are a leader.

Say, I am a leader.

You are a leader. You have the ability, the capacity to influence people with your lifestyle.

People are looking at you, watching you, and if they ever talk to you,

give them the message the Lord gave you.

God is not counting your sins against you. Hallelujah.

Glory be to God. This is how you experience true life. Amen.